Sales funnels

Why do I need a sales funnel?

It’s a shame when companies and people spend good money on a website that then doesn’t result in converting visitors into prospect and ultimately more sales. That would be like having a shop with all your products displayed beautifully for your visitors yet not having a shop assistant there to guide your visitors through your products and sales process leading to the visitor making a purchase. You’ve never heard of a shop with no sales people working there for good reason, right?

What is a sales funnel?

A sales funnel is a process or system that automates, simplifies and streamlines the sales journey.

They aren’t unique to online marketing as sales funnels describe any purchase that you make. When you go to a shop you are led through aisles full of products, presented with special offers like buy 2 get one free, and then taken to a checkout to pay for your items. You might even be given a coupon to entice you back again to make more purchases.

Sales funnels are well planned marketing campaigns with multiple mini steps that take a visitor through your sales process.

Sales funnels are sometimes referred to as ‘marketing funnels’ or ‘conversion funnels’, and each step is designed to lead your visitor or customer to the next one seamlessly and naturally with the ultimate goal being to make a sale or multiple sales and convert your customer into an ambassador for your company.

Breaking the buying cycle into mini steps allows you to be more precise about what and when you present an offer to your visitors and customers.

The largest companies use this technique all the time. Take fast food chains for instance. If you order a hamburger, the sales person usually asks if you would like to add chips and a drink to turn it into a meal. Then, they might also ask if you would like to have the large portions for just a little bit of extra cost. You might also be asked to provide your email address to take part in a competition and win a prize. Sound familiar?

These are an example of a set of mini offers designed to get you to increase your purchase at that moment, plus asking for your contact details so they can present your with sales offers into the future.

The benefits of sales funnels

You probably wouldn’t be visiting this page if you weren’t already aware of the benefits of a good sales funnel.

However, let’s take a look at some of the main benefits of an online sales funnel, apart from saving you money and time of course.

A sales funnel:

Helps you improve your customer conversions

Earnings Per Click (EPC)

Gross Sales

Average Cart Value

Page Views

Opt-Ins

Sales

Earnings Per Pageview

Automates your sales processes

Helps you improve your overall engagement

Qualifies your audience

Helps increase average sales value

Allows you to implement up-sells and down-sells

Maximises the return on your ad spends

Helps create and build brand awareness

Helps you to split test your offers

The evidence for why you should have a sales funnel is well established and hopefully obvious, however, what might not be is just how easy they are to implement nowadays, thanks to platforms and software like Clickfunnels and Thrive Themes and certainly what most people miss is just how much money they can make for you.

If you haven’t heard of Clickfunnels or Thrive Themes or would like to know how they compare to each other, you might like this article: